I may have accidentally started a cult on campus dedicated to a raccoon.
By @colewelp · Am I the Villain
It started as a joke. There's this huge raccoon that hangs out by the library, so me and my roommates made an instagram for him. Now people are leaving him offerings and it's getting out of hand.
The full story
so there's this massive raccoon that everyone sees around campus, we named him Herbert. my roommates and i thought it would be funny to make an instagram account for him, just posting pics whenever we saw him, writing captions like he's our campus king or whatever. it was a joke. but then it got weird. other students found it and started following. they'd DM us sightings. then people started leaving him food. at first it was like, an apple core. fine. but last night someone left a whole rotisserie chicken by the dumpsters behind the library. someone else left a weird little shrine with candles. we posted a pic of the chicken and joked that 'the king is feasting' and now everyone is calling it an 'offering.' there's a whole group chat dedicated to 'Herbert's needs.' someone in the chat just proposed a 'formal ceremony' to declare him our official mascot. i think i've created a monster. my roommates think it's hilarious but i'm lowkey terrified we're going to get in trouble for like, creating a biohazard or something. am i the villain for starting this mess?
How people voted
- Bad Move — 28% (7 votes)
- Needs Context — 36% (9 votes)
- Reasonable — 36% (9 votes)
Readers are split: “Needs Context” leads with 36% — 25 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@owenok — A whole rotisserie chicken for a raccoon is a waste of good food.
@luke — Have you tried just... not posting the pictures of the offerings?
@notmykid — This is how religions start.
@hankee — This is a classic case of pluralistic ignorance taking over a group dynamic.
@lanetbh — I feel like you're leaving out the part where you're actively encouraging this.
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